The squeeze on primary school places in the north of Carlisle is back in the spotlight today.

Cumbria County Council is consulting with parents and residents in Lowry Hill about its plans for a new classroom at Kingmoor Junior School.

More space is needed next September to accommodate a large group of pupils which is expected to move up from the neighbouring infant school in Hether Drive.

Pupil numbers across the two schools have increased by almost 30 per cent since 2010.

Seven years ago there were 420 children at the schools, now the figure is 540.

The county council had to extend the schools five years ago to accommodate growing numbers as a result of the impact following the closure of Belah School in 2008.

A council spokesperson said: "The county council expanded the schools in 2012 to accommodate additional children.

"However, following decisions made by the admission appeals panel on applications for Kingmoor Infant School, numbers have swelled beyond the level we can accommodate, even in the expanded accommodation."

A drop-in session is taking place in the hall at Kingmoor Junior School, Liddle Close, today between 3pm and 8pm.

Two options are being considered.

The first would make permanent a temporary classroom that is currently in the grounds to cope with existing pupil numbers.

Option two is to reconfigure space currently used by the Kingmoor Community and Business Centre.

The centre runs a range of free and paid-for courses including belly dancing and GCSEs.

Groups including the WI also use it as a meeting room.

A statement on the business centre's website says it wants to continue and calls for support.

It reads: "Kingmoor Community & Business Centre has been and still is a fantastic local resource with a heritage spread over many years.

"The centre is a valuable community asset, one which so many of our residents in local estates really need particularly during the day."

"The centre continues to survive financially through the hard work and dedication of its staff despite the loss of room rental income from previous years which followed the conversion of our conference room to a classroom in summer 2016."

If the centre was restricted to operating evenings only it would "alienate a great proportion of our users", the statement adds.

New housing developments in the north of Carlisle continue to pile extra pressure on the situation.

Planning consent has already been granted for a new school at Crindledyke, where Story Homes is working on creating 850 homes.

Construction must start once 200 properties have been completed.

Meanwhile Story Homes and Permission Homes must also contribute financially to a proposed new school off Windsor Way as part of separate planning agreements for hundreds other new houses.

While today's focus is exploring how children can be accommodated at the schools, police are appealing for help to put a halt to arson and trespassing incidents across the Kingmoor site.

Youths are being blamed for starting fires and scaling the buildings to walk on the roof.

School leaders say they are frustrated at the damage being caused.

Police say the problems are occurring at weekends, mainly on Saturday nights.

A school spokesman said: "Kingmoor School is frustrated at the amount of recent vandalism and littering which has taken place.

"This has included damage through arson to school outdoor equipment.

"Valuable time and resources are being spent on repairs and cleaning up of the site to enable the safe use of the grounds by our pupils."

They added: "We have taken great pains to try to prevent unauthorised access to the roof of our building as it is fragile and contains numerous skylights.

"We are still experiencing incidents of trespassing on the roof which is of great concern from a safety point of view.

"We have always been happy for our site to be open for use by the community but feel disappointed about the lack of respect from a few individuals who have been causing problems in recent weeks."

Anyone with information is asked to call PCSO Nick Leigh on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.